Passage: Mark 1:40-45
The Big Idea
Leprosy was a living death: incurable, isolating, rotting a person from the outside in. In Scripture it’s a vivid picture of sin. A leper came to Jesus alone, begging, kneeling, and appealing only to His love: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus, moved with compassion, touched him and said, “I am willing; be cleansed.” That’s how anyone is healed of sin: come to Jesus alone, in humility and faith, and hear Him say, “I will.”
A Leper’s Story
Imagine his story.
I remember the first day. I was young, full of hope. The future looked like an open field. I grew up by the sea in northern Israel, in a loving family, hoping in the hope of Israel: that God would come and deliver us from the Romans.
Then one small spot on my skin shattered every dream. Instead of freedom, my life was bound and chained to keep me away from the people I love. My family used to welcome me with open arms. Now they run and shout at me to stay away. I have to call out “Unclean!” wherever I go.
Helpless. What did I do? What can I do? As the lonely months crawl by, this disease ravages my body. Fingers and toes, lips and nose. Everything is dying. I’m alive, but I’m dead. And no one is ever healed of this.
On sleepless nights I remember the sermons from back when I was allowed in the synagogue. One sticks with me: the passage in Leviticus that tells what to do if someone is ever healed of leprosy (Leviticus 14). Why would God give those instructions? Except for a few rare miracles in our history, like Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5), no priest ever had to use them. Lepers die, miserable, alone, rejected.
But what if God’s Messiah came? My heart flinches at the pain of hoping. But a seed has been planted. Only God could heal me. No man ever could. Why would God want to?
Then I started hearing about a prophet named Jesus. He says things that offend the religious people (and I don’t care much for them anyway, so I already like Him). They say He casts out demons and heals all kinds of diseases. Fevers and headaches are one thing. Leprosy is another. But maybe… maybe I’ll go find this Jesus today.
This leper was a real man, with thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams, and an incurable disease.
Today, leprosy (Hansen’s disease) can be cured with several months of medication, yet hundreds of thousands of new cases are still reported around the world every year.
And I’m certain there are lepers reading this right now. Because in Scripture leprosy is a picture of sin. Sin is a hideous disease that fills our whole being until God heals us. Anyone who recognizes their sin today can be healed today. Anyone who thinks they’re fine will find it impossible to receive anything from God.
Which are you?
- Do you see God’s high, holy standard as perfect and out of reach, and know you need a miracle, you need Jesus?
- Or do you imagine God will overlook your sin, that your efforts and religion will impress Him enough to cover the death inside you, so you don’t really need Jesus?
Jesus will be set before every one of us. The difference will be simple: some will come to Him in simple, dependent faith and be healed. Others won’t. Which will you be?
He Came to Jesus (Mark 1:40)
A leper came to Jesus, begging Him, kneeling down and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Mark is teaching us how to be healed by Jesus.
- Do you want to be healed? Do you know you need it?
- Sin is the disease we need healing from.
- Do you like living in sin? Are sin’s pleasures your best friends? Maybe you don’t really want healing.
- But this leper hated his infection. He wanted to be healed.
Notice all the pronouns: Him, Him, Him… You, You. They all refer to Jesus. He’s the only One you need to deal with, the only One with the power to heal. Do you believe that?
Then come to Him!
“Came to Him.” The leper could come to Jesus because Jesus had first come near and made Himself available.
- The leper wasn’t seeking Jesus and someone else. It was Jesus only.
- That’s what saving faith looks like: loyal, all in, no hope in anything else.
- “I do church. And I do this other thing. And I have my own stuff. I don’t want to be one of those Jesus freaks.” But God’s way of healing and salvation is faith in Jesus: all-in, exclusive faith, rejecting every other hope, fully surrendering to His lordship.
- Will you leave everything behind to come to Him for healing today? Or is sin’s stench so appealing that you won’t come?
Hebrews says He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them (Hebrews 7:25).
“Begging Him.” The leper pleaded with Jesus in faith. He didn’t ask to be made comfortable in his leprosy; he asked to be cleansed of it.
- The first necessary ingredient for divine healing is faith.
- With all his heart he wanted deliverance, and his only plan was to ask Jesus to do it.
- Will you ask Jesus to heal you today, leaving behind every other hope of rescue?
“Kneeling down to Him.” The leper humbled himself.
- He knew his place before God.
- He knew he needed Jesus.
- He placed himself beneath Jesus: He must increase; I must decrease.
- He wasn’t trying to earn anything. He simply laid all his disgusting need before Jesus.
- Will you kneel before Jesus, humble yourself and surrender to Him as Lord of heaven and earth, and of your own pitiful life?
Humility and faith: the way to God’s grace. The help and healing each of us needs is given freely. God’s requirements are simple: He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6), and we access grace by faith (Romans 5:2). And sin shall not be master over you, because you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).
“If You Are Willing”
“If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Now the leper shows what true faith is.
- He doesn’t say Jesus should heal him because he’s earned it or deserves it, or because life has been so hard.
- He appeals to Jesus’ love and will.
- He knows Jesus can. He asks Jesus to want to.
This man discovered the secret, the way to the heart of God: simply appeal to His love and mercy!
God told Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and compassion on whom I will have compassion.” So it doesn’t depend on human will or effort, but on God who shows mercy (Romans 9:15-16).
- God’s deepest desire is to show His merciful, gracious heart and hand, and He proves it again and again.
- It doesn’t depend on how much we want it or what we do to earn it. That isn’t the way to God’s heart. That’s me-focused.
- The key is to get our eyes off ourselves and onto Jesus: “Here I am, broken, gross, unworthy and unclean. I know You can heal me; You’re the only One who can. Would You show me Your love? Show me that Your plan for me is love and mercy.”
What do you think Jesus will say?
“Ew, you’re gross. I’m not helping you”? “I’m tired of your groveling”? “You think I love you? You’re not that important to Me”?
“I Am Willing” (Mark 1:41-42)
Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He spoke, the leprosy left him, and he was clean.
- The words of humility and faith were barely out of the leper’s mouth when Jesus caught them and returned them with love and power!
- When Jesus meets humility and faith, it stirs a compassion unlike anything we’ve seen. The word means His insides were moved. Love welled up in His infinite heart like an earthquake.
- “I am willing! Be clean! You’ve found the way to My heart. I can’t resist your appeal, and I don’t want to! To love you is My delight. To heal you is My work.”
- As Jesus reached out, the power of His life and love destroyed every deathly trace of the curse.
- For the first time in years, maybe decades, this man felt the unafraid touch of love and acceptance. Jesus touched an untouchable!
- His Savior healed him completely, by free grace. He did nothing to earn or deserve it.
- No part of him wanted to go back. Why would he want to live as a leper again?
- No rule of law dominated his life now. It was love. The grace Jesus gave set him free and made his skin as fresh as a child’s, and his heart as loved as a child of God.
Jesus truly does good to all who call on Him in humility and faith.
And now the leper is a new creation with a new identity. He’s not a leper anymore! He’s a beloved child of God. He never has to grieve over his leprosy again. It’s been exchanged for praise, joy and thanksgiving.
Never think you have to live like a leper when you aren’t one anymore!
The One on the throne says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). And if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).
That’s the Jesus we come to meet. All things were made through Him, and through Him I’m made new. He creates a new heart in us as we come in humility and faith.
Show Yourself to the Priest (Mark 1:43-45)
Jesus strictly warned him and sent him away at once: “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
- Jesus welcomed confirmation. He let the priests judge for themselves whether the healing was real and complete.
- And it would be a testimony that God had sent His Messiah, who was making all things new.
- When we’re healed of sin, the world has every right to check whether we’re really changed. And a changed life convinces people that Jesus is real.
But the man went out and began telling everyone, spreading the news so widely that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but stayed out in deserted places. And people still came to Him from everywhere.
Come and Be Cleansed
Is there anyone here with a heart full of disease who wants to be cleansed? Anyone willing to humble themselves and ask Jesus in faith?
Maybe you came in with evil thoughts or crushing addictions. Maybe you can’t see anything lovely or righteous in yourself.
You can be cleansed now. Just like this leper: come to Jesus alone. Call on Him in simple faith. Bow before Him in all your brokenness and need. Cry out, “If You are willing, You can make me clean!” And the words won’t be out of your mouth before Jesus hands them back to you with grace and power: “I am willing! Be clean!”
Love, mercy and acceptance will be yours. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).
Where does my sin go? What happens to my rebellious desires? Jesus took them and nailed them to the cross in His own body. They were killed there, never to return.
In exchange, we receive a new spirit, a clean spirit, His Holy Spirit, sealing us as children of God forever.
Whenever you’re tempted to go back to living like a leper, look back at the cross and see your disease put to death there. Then remember the joy, praise and thanksgiving that belong to you as a new creation. You’re loved and accepted. You’re God’s child forever. As He rose with new life, you’re given His resurrection life every day. Abide in that life. Rejoice in it. Thank God for it! Feed on it daily in the Word and the Spirit.
Become a willing servant, following and fellowshipping with God all day, every day. In that abiding, we experience real life and love, the way we were meant to.
Grace Takeaway
Sin is a leprosy no amount of religion can cure. But Jesus isn’t repelled by it; He reaches out and touches. Come to Him alone, kneel in humility, and appeal to His love: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” His answer is always, “I am willing.” You’re not a leper anymore. Live like the new creation He made you.